The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to notify the receipt on December 7, 2011, of a communication of the Government of Japan, dated December 5, 2011, regarding a limitation of the status of international depository authority with respect to certain kinds of microorganisms of the International Patent Organism Depository (IPOD), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), an international depositary authority under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, done at Budapest on April 28, 1977, and amended on September 26, 1980 (see Budapest Notification No. 15 of March 31, 1981).
Pursuant to Article 8(2)(b) of the Budapest Treaty and Rule 4.2(b)(iii) of the Regulations under the Budapest Treaty, the limitation of the status of international depositary authority shall take place on March 31, 2012.
December 20, 2011
Text of the communication by the Government of Japan relating to a limitation of the status of international depositary authority with respect to certain kinds of microorganisms of the International Patent Organism Depositary (IPOD), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
[Original: English]
COMMUNICATION
In accordance with Rule 5.1 of the Regulations under the Budapest Treaty, I have the honor to inform you that the IPOD has decided to discontinue the performance of the functions for which it is responsible under the Treaty and the Regulations thereunder in respect of bacteria (including actinomycetes), archaea, fungi, yeasts, plasmids (in host/not in host), animal cell cultures (including human cell cultures and hybridomas) and embryos. This decision applies only to future deposits. As a result, the assurances provided by the Government of Japan in its communications of March 17, 1981, July 30, 1987, December 23, 1992, January 20, 2000 and April 17, 2001 will continue to apply to said microorganisms already deposited with the IPOD as well as to any conversions into Budapest Treaty deposits of deposits made outside the scope of the Budapest Treaty before the effective date of this communication.
Kinds of Microorganisms that May Be Deposited
Protozoa, plant cell cultures, seeds and algae, EXCEPT:
- microorganisms classified as biological safety level (BSL) 3 or 4 according to the Guidelines for the Handling of the Experiment of Microorganisms in AIST;
- microorganisms that belong to Category No. 1, 2 and 3 pathogens stipulated in the Act on Prevention of Infectious Diseases and the Medical Care of Infectious Patients (1998);
- microorganisms that require the containment measure levels P3P for experiments, as described in the Ministerial Ordinance stipulating Containment Measures to be Taken in Type 2 Use of Living Modified Organisms for Research and Development (2004), which is based on the Law concerning the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity through Regulations on the Use of Living Modified Organisms (2003); and
- mixtures of undefined and/or unidentifiable microorganisms.
IPOD reserves the right to refuse to accept deposit that is technically or legally too difficult to manage.
Effective date of the change: March 31, 2012.